J&M Special Effects and The ESTA Foundation will offer a professional-level class on special effect application and equipment, systems, real life application, compliance and safety. Gregory Meeh, award winning special effects designer, founder, and president of J&M Special Effects, will conduct the class, which is scheduled for Monday, May 19, 2008 from 2:00-8:00pm at J&M headquarters in Brooklyn, NY. The class is limited to 20 participants.
Gregory Meeh designs, builds, and supplies special effects for theatre, opera, dance, industrials, television, film and print. Some recent credits include KA for Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas, Lord of the Rings in Toronto and London, and the Broadway productions of Grinch, Pirate Queen, Spamalot, Julius Caesar, Nine, Into The Woods, Aida, Ragtime, Showboat, An Inspector Calls (Drama Desk Award), Damn Yankees, Angels In America, Tommy, The Phantom Of The Opera, Les Misérables, and Twelfth Night at Lincoln Center (Eddy Award). His work also includes the television productions of Fool's Fire for American Playhouse, Late Show, Saturday Night Live, and One Life To Live.
The six-hour class will cover a wide spectrum of effects including uses of SFX in a variety of mediums from performing arts to print to TV and film. The first section of the class will cover Designing Special Effects: based on hundreds of images and drawings from 35 years of special effects design, Gregory Meeh will comment on and discuss the techniques and applications used to realize the needs of many types of productions, from the Off Broadway originations of Broadway hits to major Las Vegas hotel venues to fashion shows, auto shows, and daytime television.
Demonstrations and discussions will follow about the tools used to create the following effects: confetti and snow, water effects, atmospherics, wind, firearms, flames, and pyrotechnics. Each technical section will include experienced J&M technicians expert in the area and will include examples of functioning equipment as well as applicable safety information.
The day, which includes a light dinner, will end in classic J&M style, with a bang. Attendees of the class will be invited to an outdoor pyrotechnic (indoor in inclement weather) demonstration to display the variety and functionality of pyrotechnics.
Each participant will receive a binder with class outline, specification sheets and diagrams, references and space for notes. The fee for the class is $395 including dinner, $295 for members of ESTA, IATSE and USITT. For detailed class information and to register visit: http://www.estafoundation.org.